It’s the ignorance, stupid! Kenyans warm up to kill each other as leaders cheer them on

Folks, we are playing with fire. And, of course, it will burn us! It's just a matter of time before the Jubilee vs CORD rivalry spirals out of control and plunge this country into a deadly civil war. That, as we reported last week, a couple in Nairobi's Githurai estate plans to divorce because of their clashing loyalties (or is it sycophancy?) to president Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga says it all.

To appreciate the grave nature of tribal rivalry in this country, log on to social media. You will cry. I think the reason why too many of us keep poking sticks into the tribalism beehive is because we can't conceptualize what it means to belong to one nation state. In fact, media commentators always aptly capture how divided we are when they routinely talk about the Luhya nation, the Luo nation, the Kikuyu nation and so forth. And they are right. Kenya is but a geographical space.

Ironically, some of our most rabid tribalists have never ventured beyond their villages to explore the remote fringes of their own county of birth. Look, young white people fly thousands of miles to Nairobi and travel by matatu to remote parts of Kenya, yet we have people in Nyeri who have never gone to Naivasha, people in Kitui who will never see Voi and people in Vihiga who only hear about Busia.

Moyale? Where the hell is that on the map? It's unbelievable that this country has 40-year-old university graduates — in gainful employment — who have never been to Wajir, Kilifi, Bura, Elgeyo Marakwet or Samburu because it has never occurred to them to venture off the Nairobi-Mombasa highway, unless sent by some foreign NGO to a seminar.

How, then, do we envisage ourselves as part of a greater Kenya, a country whose geographical boundaries we can't even conceptualize? Isn't it idiotic how we have such virulent contempt for communities whose culture we have never experienced first-hand? Our knowledge of 'other tribes' is based on the belligerent noises politicians make about opponents and a few nonsensical stereotypes that have somehow solidified into gospel truth.

Oh, they are thieves! Oh, they are arrogant and loud... and what not. These stereotypes are further reinforced by the fact that we have an awfully limited understanding of national history. If university students have to dub something they learned three months back to pass an exam, you wouldn't expect them to, for instance, know, or remember, what happened at the Lancaster House Conference in 1962, would you?

Just the other day, a young journalist shocked me shen she asked me, "Who is Biwott?". I mean, Nicholas Kipyator Arap Biwott — the total man — is alive and kicking and there is someone, more so a journalist, who doesn't know him? Would such a young fellow know Kariuki Chotara or Field Marshal Stanley Mathenge wa Mirugi and their contribution to this great nation? As if that wasn't shocking enough, a colleague says that when he asked a candidate during a job interview whether he had read Francis Imbuga's story in the newspaper, the young man thought Imbuga was actually a reporter. He didn't even seem to be aware that the professor of Literature and famous playwright passed on!

I know everyone talks about patriotism. Sadly, when politicians mount the podium, they only talk about the things that divide us — land, nepotism, scramble for resources and so forth. But we will only forge one nation when we begin to talk about the things that bind us, when we look back to history; to the blood, sweat and tears upon which this nation is founded, when we start listening to old Independence songs with tears in our eyes, when we dare to dream beyond our villages and counties.